If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

There are a few on Google Play, so I can't see why these couldn't be transferred to the OUYA!

Originally Posted by Dreamzle

Hope they verify that it'll be allowed in the Ouya store before doing too much work on it

There's another thread where, as one of our members is in the legal profession, the status of Emulators is explained. The gist of it is that the only potentially "bad" part is getting access to the games - the emulators themselves are OK. And I wouldn't see why, if an emulator like this can pass Google Play's measures, that OUYA wouldn't allow it on their store.

Very excited about this. I really enjoy messing around with emulators as most of them allow you to modify games.

I used to play "Toejam and Earl" on the Mega-Drive (and "Panic on Funkotron" AND "Toejam and Earl III" on the Xbox1)... the most frustrating part was the lack of a save ability, yet with Emu's you can save state! That's the bit I love :-)

There's another thread where, as one of our members is in the legal profession, the status of Emulators is explained. The gist of it is that the only potentially "bad" part is getting access to the games - the emulators themselves are OK. And I wouldn't see why, if an emulator like this can pass Google Play's measures, that OUYA wouldn't allow it on their store.

I took part in the thread, I don't recall anybody at all saying they were in a legal profession. And it doesn't matter if emulators are legal (though even that's a grey area until the hardware patents run out) - as I said in that thread, it is illegal to distribute ROMs without permission of the copyright holder, which means it's 100% illegal to download ROMs even if you own the game. The only legal uses for emulators is to play games that you have ripped from your own cartridges, or to play homebrew games, so like 99.99999% of emulator users are breaking the law. As such, emulators promote piracy. And I remember reading in an interview or Q&A that Boxer8 (the Ouya people) will not allow apps that promote illegal activities in their store.

And the Ouya store is not Google Play, nobody should assume that if Google lets an app on their store, that Boxer8 will. They've already told us they are making strict requirements that Google Play doesn't, specifically the fact that all games must be free to download and allow some sort of play without paying any money. And Boxer8 has a huge incentive NOT to allow emulators in their store, the fact that they are actively courting the big developers and publishers to make games for the Ouya. Do you think Capcom would be happy to develop for a company that encourages piracy of their games? That's how Capcom would take an app with a screenshot like the one at the beginning of this thread, and piracy is one of the big things developers are worried about with the Ouya, based as it is on Android, one of the most pirated ecosystems.

I'm just saying, it would be foolish to go to a lot of work on something that has a very good possibility of not being allowed in the store, without emailing Boxer8 and asking them if they are going to allow it. It would take less than 5 minutes to write that email.

I took part in the thread, I don't recall anybody at all saying they were in a legal profession. And it doesn't matter if emulators are legal (though even that's a grey area until the hardware patents run out) - as I said in that thread, it is illegal to distribute ROMs without permission of the copyright holder, which means it's 100% illegal to download ROMs even if you own the game. The only legal uses for emulators is to play games that you have ripped from your own cartridges, or to play homebrew games, so like 99.99999% of emulator users are breaking the law. As such, emulators promote piracy. And I remember reading in an interview or Q&A that Boxer8 (the Ouya people) will not allow apps that promote illegal activities in their store.

And the Ouya store is not Google Play, nobody should assume that if Google lets an app on their store, that Boxer8 will. They've already told us they are making strict requirements that Google Play doesn't, specifically the fact that all games must be free to download and allow some sort of play without paying any money. And Boxer8 has a huge incentive NOT to allow emulators in their store, the fact that they are actively courting the big developers and publishers to make games for the Ouya. Do you think Capcom would be happy to develop for a company that encourages piracy of their games? That's how Capcom would take an app with a screenshot like the one at the beginning of this thread, and piracy is one of the big things developers are worried about with the Ouya, based as it is on Android, one of the most pirated ecosystems.

I'm just saying, it would be foolish to go to a lot of work on something that has a very good possibility of not being allowed in the store, without emailing Boxer8 and asking them if they are going to allow it. It would take less than 5 minutes to write that email.

One of the members on this forum is in the legal profession - I forget who and am a lazy so-and-so when it comes to searching for posts mentioning it ;-)

You are right, in that technically the ROMs are the illegal part and the emu isn't. And while yes, Boxer8 want to promote a more developer-friendly pirate-less environment, I get both sides of the arguments when it comes to emus on OUYA. On the one hand, the emu's tend to be for "dead" systems, long past any sort of profitability for any companies, whilst on the flip-side, these companies still own and control the IPs in the games ripped in the ROMs.

You raise several seriously good points! Android has been quoted as high as 95% on the piracy rate, something that Boxer8 will find it difficult to reduce and certainly, as you say, attracting big-name developers to the OUYA would be more likely to happen if the ecosystem could be tightened in some way.

But I love the idea of being able to play old-school titles (of which I already own and have no means nor knowledge of how to rip) and saving state etc. Yet, as someone equally interested in creating games for the OUYA, more modern titles would likely hold my attention for longer :-)

as I said in that thread, it is illegal to distribute ROMs without permission of the copyright holder, which means it's 100% illegal to download ROMs even if you own the game.

There's a bit of a logic gap there. But avoiding that gap, there is no shortage of freely available homebrew games/demos for old consoles. Not too many for SNES, but old consoles in general.

I'd guess that the emulators would be made available on the ouya store--if not, a fair chunk of people will just be running it on their Ouya hardware anyway. In store or no, it's attractive functionality, and if it's not available in the shop, it'll find other ways to work itself out.